


the things we lost in the fire, fire, fire

by emmalinerosette



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Canon Compliant, Episode Related, Episode: s01e06 The Very Last Day of the Rest of Their Lives, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-05
Updated: 2019-07-05
Packaged: 2020-06-09 21:24:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19484320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmalinerosette/pseuds/emmalinerosette
Summary: Crowley and Aziraphale are already switched by St James's Park, and Crowley-as-Aziraphale asks about the car, and Aziraphale-as-Crowley asks about the bookshop, which means they are switched when we see them both discover their lost treasures restored. So what do they lose in the fire?I ship these two to the end(s) of the earth, but I also love doing a little canon midrash, so this work is gen/pre-slash. Nearly all the dialogue is straight from the show.I'm so glad I felt compelled to write this as fic instead of as a twitter thread, so god bless, hail satan, and do your thing.





	the things we lost in the fire, fire, fire

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "Things We Lost In The Fire" by Bastille  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYRqIAuY9IQ
> 
> This fic won't make sense without having seen the finale, and is one giant spoiler. But honestly, if you're here reading fan fiction before finishing a six episode series, what are you doing with your life?

The bus to Oxford stopped at the corner of Regent Street and Conduit Street, a precise equal distance from Aziraphale’s bookshop and Crowley’s apartment.

“You’re sure this is right?” Crowley asked, one last time.

“It may very well be the wrong thing,” said Aziraphale.

The bus doors closed with a jerk and the bus hissed before roaring to life and lumbering away. It broke the trance transfixing one upon the other. It had lasted the blink of an eye and six thousand years.

“Right,” Crowley said decisively, sticking out his hand.

“Crowley, I—”

“Shut up, angel.”

Aziraphale nodded and collected himself before sliding his hand into Crowley’s. 

“Good luck,” said Crowley.

“See you soon,” said Aziraphale.

***

Soho, London

The Very First Day of the Rest of Their Lives

Aziraphale stopped dead in the street to stare at the untouched storefront. “A.Z. Fell & Co.” shone in gold lettering above the door. It had been impossible to read the sign in the death heat of the fire. But now they stood out clear as day. Aziraphale walked to the front door, pausing on the step, remembering how it felt to run into the inferno, the whirling vortex of heat and destruction that could never touch him. As he walked inside, Aziraphale paused here and there to touch lightly, reminding himself that what he was seeing was real. What he’d seen had been real, but not anymore. This was the new real. 

_Touch it, believe it, and you may get it for keepsss_ , he whispered in his heart of hearts.

***

Mayfair, London

The Very First Day of the Rest of Their Lives

Crowley prowled ahead, not in a rush, but in grim determination. Until he slowed, not totally believing what he saw. Staring at the Bentley, his eyes raked from the hood ornament to the back bumper. He blinked behind his sunglasses to clear the vision of each of those parts flying through the air, the sound they made individually as each piece crashed down to Earth. As the Bentley had flown apart the day before, his memories of every trip in the vehicle had flooded his senses until he shut down the mental slideshow to get on with saving the world. Looking now at the glistening marvel of engineering, Crowley let a smile stretch itself across his countenance.

 _Everything can be saved, I just have to hold it together, and then it’s all ours_ , he said to himself in the pit of his stomach.

***

St James’s Park

Soon After

CrowleyAziraphale ordered for the pair at the ice cream cart just as he’d done for millennia at countless restaurants, stands, and notably once, a food truck.

AziraphaleCrowley had held his tongue up to now, but as the cart worker fished out their treats, he had to confirm his conclusions.

“How’s the car?”

CrowleyAziraphale could feel where under other circumstances, he would be unable to resist smiling in this situation, but he had suspicions of his own he wanted answered, and their serious nature was enough to put him off the optimism and worshipful praise he felt bubbling happily in his essence. “Not a scratch on it.” He forced himself, with only some success to ask his question neutrally. “How’s the bookshop?

AziraphaleCrowley knew his reaction was all wrong without CrowleyAziraphale searching his face, but he couldn’t let any drop of emotion into what he had to say, or it would all burn up in a kindling flash. “Not a smudge. Not a book burned. Everything back, just the way it was.”

CrowleyAziraphale smiled, attempting to give it a sharp edge, but simply giving up as he felt how quickly he was failing to look anything other than relieved, grateful, and ecstatic.

AziraphaleCrowley left out the bit about the new books. His angel deserved the delight of a surprise gift. “You heard from your people yet?” he asked, eyes scanning all around them even as he accepted the vanilla cone.

CrowleyAziraphale pulled a face and shook his head. “Yours?”

“Nothing.”

“Do you understand what happened yesterday?” CrowleyAziraphale asked. He had a thousand questions swirling in his mind, a hundred thousand possible answers, but when he tried to consciously think it through, his mind was a blank. It was terribly unnerving.

“Well,” AziraphaleCrowley stuttered over how to pull off his answer with confidence that would shore up his counterpart. “I understand some of it.” _Nailed it. Nearly._ But then AziraphaleCrowley couldn’t overcome the truth of the experience. “But some of it… well, it’s just a little bit too—” He was loathe to say—

“Ineffable,” Death wheezed, interrupting the thought AziraphaleCrowley never intended to finish mentally or aloud.

“Oh, that--that’s funny, seeing him here. That’s meant to be bad luck,” said CrowleyAziraphale, very unhelpfully. “That’s meant to be bad—” and here he gasped in a way he couldn’t hold back for anything. He whipped around, looking to all sides of himself until he spotted his counterpart gagged tight and being dragged away by an angel at each arm. 

The angel’s blue eyes were opened wider and bluer than the sky above even as CrowleyAziraphale yelled after the lot. A woman stepped to check on the screaming demon, who didn’t spare her a glance before the woman hit her over the head with a crowbar.

CrowleyAziraphale hit the ground hard, but summoned the wherewithal to turn and steal a glance at the crowd closing in on him. Demons, every one. 

This was right. This was all according to plan. This was unburned pages and scratchless automobiles and the promise of something new.

“It’s not a problem. It’s tickety-boo.”

It all went black.

***

On the Park Bench

After The Trials

“Do you think they’ll leave us alone now? AziraphaleCrowley rumbled.

“At a guess,” CrowleyAziraphale said with a light clip, “They’ll pretend it never happened.”

AziraphaleCrowley hmmmed, but CrowleyAziraphale had no patience left, ready to shake out of himself, so to speak.

“Right. Anyone looking?”

The pair glanced around, and then AziraphaleCrowley read the intentions around them for any curious onlookers.

“Nobody. Right. Swap back, then.”

They took one another by the hand, trading atoms like a mechanical puzzle in which each piece must be worked into just the right position before it can release. It took moments to trade vessels and then wriggle their non-corporeal essences back into the well-worn grooves of their Earthly existence.

Aziraphale couldn’t wait to boast to Crowley what outlandish things he’d done in Hell, and Crowley couldn’t wait to temper his friend with a warning of the reality ahead of them. Crowley knew Hell would run scared after the defeat of their plan, and he enjoyed a laugh at their expense. Aziraphale knew how Heaven turned to wrath when thwarted, and though it boggled the mind to think Heaven would cooperate with Hell against Humanity, well, hadn’t Aziraphale seen how their very actions had brought Heaven and Hell together to punish him and Crowley.

But. Then they went to the Ritz, and together, they said to one another the most they could to start.

“I like to think none of this would have worked out,” Aziraphale started as the champagne was served, “if you weren’t, at heart, just a little bit a good person.”

“And if you weren’t,” Crowley replied, “deep down, just enough of a bastard to be worth knowing.”

They toasted to the world, and it was a beautiful start.

**Author's Note:**

> Finally, just such a huge, special thank you to Michael Sheen and David Tennant for giving so many layers in their performances. I watched each scene back several times writing this and my word. RICHES. They're gems and I feel so lucky.


End file.
